(Tuesday 22/09) The bus back to Kathmandu wasn't as early this time so we had a bit more of a leisurely start. I (Podge) was a little apprehensive about the journey back as this time, we'd be on the side of the massive drop into the abyss…(probably making it out to sound worse than it is - parents, please try not to worry!). James took the window seat and thoroughly enjoyed the ride, often instructing me not to look out the window when I poked my nose out from under my book. When we reached the main fork in the road (one leads to Pokhara and one to Chitwan) it all settled down a bit and the road bumbled along not too high up. We stopped at the same place for some lunch - I had a lovely samosa - and then boarded again, ready for the climb into Kathmandu - at this point, I promptly fell asleep.

Unsurprisingly, we made it back in one piece! Both now comfortable(ish) with the thought of a 6 hour bus journey - well, there's nothing really we can do about the length of time - but it's nice to know that we are able to pass time easily (reading, shaking with fear, praying (Podge), watching the KTM valley pass away (James)!). The bus dropped us off somewhere completely random and not really able to get our bearings, we teamed up with a Taiwanese girl and headed for Thamel…once she'd found her place, we were on our own. James decided to play 'pioneer/I know the way' role and eventually after conceding defeat asked a couple of 6(?) year old school boys where we were on the map (this was after I'd prompted him to get it out of his bag!). The boys located us on the map, but we probably should have asked them what direction we were facing…feeling like we still weren't going the right way, I risked my head and stopped James and got out the trusty compass (thanks Dad!!)…yep, we were definitely going the wrong way. About turn and back all the way…what should have been about 20 minutes took closer to 40. Hey-ho we made it back to the warmest 'hero's' welcome from Khem (the guest house owner). A cup of chai later and out for a big celebratory dinner. Until now, we'd been sticking to a veggie diet - partly out of fear, but also knowing that we had a few long journeys ahead of us - we decided to treat ourselves to a chicken curry and it was delicious!

James has decided (and I quote) - "I am feeling at one with Nepal" - which is good to know. I however am taking a little longer to settle, but we've only been here just under a week, so it'll take a bit of time. He has assumed the role of ultimate protector though, so at least I feel safe as houses!

We were due back at the visa place the next day to complete part 2 of the process (handing in our passports) so started to look at what we might want to do in India…booking train travel looks like a palaver and a half - this was going to take some proper reading once we made it to Pokhara.

When we had booked back into the guest house, we were put in the building block across the road, obviously a newer purchase, however they didn't have any mosquito nets on the windows. Not remembering being bothered by them before when we were in KTM, we left the window open and bedded down for the night (as well as one can with the dogs and cars!). Que - 2am hanging out mosquito nets and camping out under them!...

(Wednesday 23/09) - One thing we are probably yet to mention is the 5.30am wakeup call that goes around Thamel - a 4-8 piece marching band effectively come past our road banging a drum and clashing together the cymbals. How delightful! They then come round again about 6.30am. This is obviously the neighbourhood wakeup call as within seconds of the second round, the cars and motorbikes start up and its horns galore.

After a quick breakfast, we went in search of the visa office again - and we didn't get lost! Well almost…

Those 6 magic words; "3 month visa valid from today". Wonderful. All we had to do was relinquish our passports and then go back the next day at 4 and pick them up. It's just a shame it was a rather expensive process (working out about £83 each!).

Riding high on the success of sorting out of visas, we decided to head into Thamel and do some shopping - see what bargains we could pick up. I was a little disappointed to find that the haggling techniques I'd previously used in India were not getting me very far indeed! Most of my suggestions at a lower price were met with laughs or even just the owner walking away - from what I'd read, Thamel has highly inflated prices because it's the main tourist hotspot, but probably as well they are less likely to do deals so that they can recoup some of the losses from the earthquake. Even now the repercussions are being felt with lower than average tourist numbers. We settled for a new bag and a 'hippy' head scarf (for my ever stinky head!) and ventured in search of some lunch (Danish pastries - mmmm!). James did well at reeling me in though, I would have happily bought everything in sight! Including a lovely thick yak's wool hoody that I know Ken would have loved, but it was slightly too big to carry around and we haven't amassed enough stuff yet for a parcel home (sorry Bro - maybe next Christmas!). Virtually dragging me out of the centre of Thamel, we headed back to the safety of our room where I could not spend our life savings!

As you may have noticed, we've been a bit slack with writing our blog on time (I am currently writing up from the notes we've made over the past few days!), so we decided to dedicate some proper time to writing up our tales that evening. Covered adequately in citronella oil (or so I thought) we sat out on the veranda catching up. I won't dwell on it too much, but needless to say the mosquitos much prefer me to James… Again, as you may be noticed, these blogs are written in the main, by me. I have asked James if he wants to write any, but I think he prefers role of editor. Please note that everything written is an account from both of us! Anyway, James had his sights firmly fixed on a massive group (not sure of the common term) of Eagles (initially thought to be kites, but confirmed as eagles). Ever the keen photographer, he tried as best as possible to get some pictures, but alas, they were too far away. WE still haven't worked out why there were so many. One of life's greatest mysteries.

Hold the phone….is that a Surrey accent?? A young chap called Christian (from Petersfield) was allocated the room next to us. He's come to Nepal for 4 weeks by himself mainly to do some trekking etc, but also with the aim of putting together a short film highlighting the plight of one particular village in Nepal that was destroyed by the earthquake. He is hoping to start a kickstarter fund raiser thing for them (he is a musician/marketing man for a music venue and someone he worked with happened to go to uni with a Nepalese guy from that village…small world). So we got chatting, a funny guy, lots of guts to do what he's doing so young (heading off to stay in the village for a few nights - a 4 hour trek from the nearest main road!). He seems like a typical musician (not intended to offend anyone) but a bit airy fairy, head in the clouds - self confessed of course! He said he has been known to arrive at a gig 30 miles away and forgotten his amp! Well the poor guy in his haste to get to the airport had forgotten to change his shoes, so had been wearing his moccasin slippers since he left the house! Tee hee, we did chuckle. Being his first night, we invited him along for dinner and I even managed to change up some left over £ with him (the money exchange places wouldn't take it as was not in notes and only amounted to about £4 - but that meant I couldn't really leave it as a tip for anyone either. At least he'd get some use out of it!!).

Went to a really cool little restaurant/café with low tables, sitting on the floor cross legged and all that. Next to us was a crazy American 'actor' who has apparently been stuck in 'this god-awful country' for a month now helping with aid, but what we was really doing was preparing to get into character for a movie he would be working on in Jaipur with none other than Gillian Anderson (yep, X-files lady) - The viceroy house - although he only had about 18 lines, this was going to open the doors for him to work on a much bigger film with Angelina Jolie of all people. … You have to wonder sometimes what is the truth…if we're honest, he looked like he'd had a little too much fun in the 60's and maybe he just never left the country. He was certainly making the most of the whiskey! Maybe in time we will eat our words and look forward to seeing him starring alongside good old Angie in her next big Hollywood (or Bollywood) hit.

(Thursday 24/09) - Now that we had our visas sorted, it was time to start making plans for our trip out to Pokhara the next day. Bus booked and a nice looking hostel - all sorted. Next on our list of places to visit in KTM was Durbar square - we were aware that a lot of it had been damaged in the earthquake, but I don't think we were prepared for quite how much was ruined. The 'tourist line' now only runs from one entrance to another which can easily be walked in about 5 minutes. The majority of the temples have been destroyed fully or partially and you cannot go into any of the buildings. Most of the site is a restricted zone and the safe zone doesn't really amount to much. Feeling a little disappointed (as much for ourselves as for the country), we headed up to a rooftop restaurant for a plate of momos and an aerial view. We were running short of time so opted to grab another cab back to Thamel to go and pick up our visas. Arriving promptly at 4pm, obviously we had to wait around for about 20 minutes. But once the visa place opened, we were processed very quickly. Finally, after just over a week, we had our Indian visas in hand.

As a little celebration and as it was our last night, we headed back to our favourite little restaurant up the road for a dinner of dahl (not wanting to risk anything with a long journey tomorrow). Of the 3 times we've been there, this was by far the busiest we'd seen it and had to be seated quite away from the main throng of people in a little corner by ourselves! Still, dinner was lovely and the waiters were all super friendly. Back to pack up and ready ourselves for another long journey…again, sleep evaded us.